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**Written by Doug Powers

“Make the pain of the cuts noticable” was the original marching order, and they sure are trying to run with it:

A judge Monday proposed a September trial date for Osama Bin Laden’s son-in-law and mouthpiece Sulaiman Abu Ghaith.

But Ghaith’s three federal public defenders said they can’t begin until January 2014 because of the deeps cuts in the federal budget known as sequestration.

Defense attorney Martin Cohen said the three attorneys working on Ghaith’s case have to take five-and-a-half-week furloughs by October as a result of the $85 billion in so-called “sequestration” spending cuts.

“It’s extremely troublesome,” Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan said as he declined to set a trial date. “Stunning.”

The sequester won’t hit Capitol janitors hard but trials for accused terrorists might be delayed due to this massive cut (read: slight decrease in the rate of spending increase)?

Not postponed due to the sequester: Sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Egypt, brand spankin’ new TSA uniforms, snail sex grants, and star-studded White House parties.

Steve Gilbert at Sweetness & Light:

But let’s pretend this is true. Then send Mr. Ghayth back to Guantanamo and give him a military tribunal trial. Problem solved.

Wait, Gitmo’s still open?

**Written by Doug Powers

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